Modern day refrigerators often include door mounted modules, such as bins, drawers, trays or shelves for example. They typically are used to store numerous items which are used frequently, particularly such frequently used items that are relatively small. In the past several years a number of schemes or assemblies have been introduced to provide greater flexibility by enabling the user to selectively mount different modules at numerous locations on the inner liner of the door, particularly on the fresh food compartment door. One such approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,455 issued Dec. 6, 1994 to Sedovic et al. However, this type of shelf or bin is best used in refrigerator doors having relatively narrow widths such as used in side-by-side refrigerator doors since doors of reduced width have lower loading forces placed on the shelves.
With a trend to larger refrigerators and in particular to top or bottom mount refrigerators where a door spans the entire width of the refrigerator, a middle dyke wall is located on the liner vertically extending along the center of the liner to define two adjacent recesses in the liner so that two columns of shelves may be positioned in side by side relation on the door. This distributes the shelf loading over 3 dyke side walls as compared to two dyke side walls. At the bottom of the refrigerator door, regardless of the size of the refrigerator, it has been common practice to position a permanent shelf that spans the width of the door. This shelf is either mounted as a module to the liner or integrally formed with the liner. Larger and taller articles are typically supported on the bottom storage shelf. In larger refrigerators, the loading placed on such bottom shelf is transferred directly onto the two side dyke walls of the inner liner adjacent the bottom of the liner. This increased loading may result in premature cracking of the liner wall.
The present invention provides an improved door and bottom storage module assembly which fixedly retains a module in a supported position in a recess in the door liner where the loading associated with the module is displaced over a bottom wall of the liner in addition to the side walls of the liner.